Thursday, 5 December 2019

No 12798, Thursday 05 Dec 2019, Incognito


ACROSS
8   Gazed about, after girl left, in stupor (4) DAZE gAZED*
9   She regularly takes off, and sometimes, feeds people (10) AIRHOSTESS [CD]
10 When hovering, I can be found here (6) MIDAIR (Addendum - A{I}R [C&DD] - See comments)
11 Reserve mechanical device for academic (8) BOOKWORM {BOOK}{WORM}
12 Inconsequential matter? Not French child (8) NONISSUE {NON}{ISSUE}
14 City side rebuilt for women (6) LADIES {LA}{SIDE*}
16 King, knight and English explorer’s first joint (4) KNEE {K}{N}{E}{Ex...s}
17 Perspiration produced by wife in chair (5) SWEAT {S{W}EAT}
18 Remedy for scoundrel with energy (4) CURE {CUR}{E}
19 Also dances on bar (6) SALOON {ALSO*}{ON}
21 Sign to stop! Bordellos are in this district! (3,5) RED LIGHT [DD]
23 Other woman has highway tension (8) MISTRESS {M1}{STRESS}
26 Top dress is worn by a couple of men (6) SUMMIT {SU{MM}IT}
27 Au (Australian) soldier is a fortune hunter (4,6) GOLD DIGGER {GOLD}{DIGGER}
28 Again, one leaves and walks around tribal (4) NAGA AGAiN*

DOWN
1   Hide Arab's first letter in grain in a state in America (10) CALIFORNIA {C{ALIF}ORN}{IA} (Addendum - {C{ALIF}ORN}{I'}{A} -  See comments)
2   Less than 0? No! (8) NEGATIVE [DD]
3   Nomad Rastafarian’s city of old (6) MADRAS [T]
4   Worm food (4) GRUB [DD]
5   Cooked moong with a bit of lemon, onion and tomato for person knowing only one tongue (8) MONOGLOT {MOONG*}{Le..n}{On..n}{To...o}
6   Drunken editor chases West at sea (6) STEWED {WEST*}{ED}
7   King’s star exploded (4) TSAR*
13 Leader seen amongst native meerkats (5) EMEER [T]
15 Heartbroken over fishes and creatures on this planet (10) EARTHLINGS {HEART*}{LINGS}
17 Fears sin, resorts to font (8) SANSERIF*
18 Hooligan has got energy, at first, to hold male type of squirrel (8) CHIPMUNK {CHI}{P{M}UNK}
20 Sets of eight — month’s promotions (6) OCTADS {OCT}{ADS}
22 Want to dump master in a river? (6) DESIRE {DE{SIR}E}
24 Criminal chases setter’s idol (4) ICON {I}{CON}
25 Oxygen added after gas is pumped back to make tapioca product (4) SAGO {GAS<=}{O}

Reference List
Girl = G, King = K, Knight = N, English = E, Wife = W, Energy = E, Highway = M1, Men = M, Editor = ED, Energy = CHI, Male = M, Setter = I, Oxygen = O


44 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Nice puzzle! Liked Air hostess,Non Issue and Gold Digger. Thanks Incognito.

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  3. 10a I is middle of aIr. Is it CD?

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    1. I felt it as DD.
      Hovering is hanging in air
      I is in mid-air

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    2. That was my interpretation. Call it a Reverse Place Indicator, if you will, on lines of Reverse Anagram, with Mid as place indicator

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    3. Thanks Kishore,
      Wouldn't you like to comment on 1DN?

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    4. I have. Please see below under concerned discussion

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  4. Col's tag: Valparai!That's the place my father spent his childhood and have heard many stories from him about the place, the famous one being the shooting of Azaad starring Dilip Kumar and Meena kumari and he meeting both of them.

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    Replies
    1. That indicates the popularity of Southern hill stations even in those days.
      I love hill stations

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    2. This was a movie that was simultaneously made in many languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu. In Tamil, I think it was called Mallai Kallan starring MGR and Bhanumati(?)

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    3. Yes, it was Bhanumati who acted in Tamil.
      I googled about the movie. It was Azaad in Hindi and AggiraamuDu in Telugu.

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    4. I remember to have seen the Tamil version Malaikkallan.

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    5. I remember having seen this movie in TV many years ago.. Remember still the song "Aplaam, chaaplam" sung by Lata and Usha Mangeshkar..

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  5. As breezy as only Incognito can.
    San Serif was the last to fall. Needed help. Took a while to find the suit in 26A.

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    Replies
    1. +1
      For me, chipmunk was the last to fall after I reached the peak in 26a

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    2. I was able to get chipmunk thanks to my exposure in U.S.Our type of squirrels are called so there, whereas their squirrels are much bigger-almost the size of a mongoose.

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    3. alwin and chipmunks is one of my fav movie series.

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  6. todays times cryptic
    4a good polish food (4)

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  7. 1D where do we get the last IA from please?

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    1. IA stands for Iowa State. Note Col hasn't highlighted this part.

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    2. Feel something amiss. Its (in america) weak def for Incognito.

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    3. 'State in America' has to be the def.,not just in America.
      We have to find IA.

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    4. Definition is State in America. IA comes from "in"=i' + a

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    5. I' for In is in Chambers,vIncognito just informed me. So I stand corrected

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    6. Thanks, Deepak. Eg: Cic = commander in chief, 2-IC, second in command

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    7. These are cases where the apostrophe too is not used

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    8. Nice editorial about apotrophe in Eco.Times today.

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  8. Internet mob broken up (6)

    The above clue was in yesterday's Guardian Cryptic 27995.
    Did we talk about it before? deja vu!!

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    Replies
    1. Yes. I think this was posted by Col once. A repeat clue in Guardian.

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  9. 26A top drawer! Excellent clues thr'out!

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  10. 17D= is it 'san-serif' or 'sans-serif'? SANS in French is "without". So the correct name is sans-serif.

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  11. Free dic. gives sanserif as an alt. for sans serif.

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  12. In 11dn worm is a mechanical device? How? Kindly explain.

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    Replies
    1. WORM is defined in Chambers as:
      a class of storage device in which data, once written, cannot be erased or overwritten

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    2. KKR ji, more relevant

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worm_drive

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