1 - Given up as a group, one dead (9) - {A}{BAND}{ONE}{D}
5 - A step on the way up — or down (5) - STAIR [CD]
8 - Accountant’s entry spells out lineage (8) - {A}N{C}E{S}TRY*
9 - Soldiers grab deserter without charge (6) - G{RAT}IS
11 - Egg-like in shape (5) - OVOID [E]
12 - Thinking alike (2,3,4) - OF ONE MIND [CD]
13 - U.S. space station, a place for high level research? (6) - {SKY}{LAB} [CD]
14 - Bachelor, calm, beginning to elude prison (8) - {BA}{STILL}{E}
16 - Substitutes with tasks keep record (8) - D{EP}UTIES
18 - Agitate a purist perhaps (4,2) - STIR UP*
22 - Boxer carries note in a cargo vessel (9) - F{RE}IGHTER
23 - A group of nations in America is a refuge (5) - {OAS}{IS}
24,25 - Constituents of a policy of incentive and deterrent (6,3,5) - CARROT AND STICK [CD]
26 - Oates of the Popish Plot (5) - TITUS [E]
27 - Being a face in the crowd — surely not what a politician would want! (9) - ANONYMITY [CD]
DOWN
1 - Uncertain how to proceed when business fails to generate income (2,1,4) - AT A LOSS [DD}
2 - Food fish gets navy confused about actor-politician (7) - AN{CHO}VY*
3 - An asset, love, in endless disuse becomes burdensome (15) - {DIS{ADVANTAGE}{O}US(-e)}
4 - Such a mind is not liberal (6) - NARROW [CD]
5 - For a lusty superior it is adapted in a clandestine manner (15) - SURREPTITIOUSLY*
6 - Debris thrown up by a worker on a small mountain (7) - {ANT}{HILL}
7 - Live around university with what is left (7) - RESID{U}E
10 - A resin beginning to putrefy in fossil fuel (5) - CO{P}AL
15 - Preliminary races which raise the temperature? Yes, they say (5) - HEATS [DD] (Correction -{HEAT}{S}(~yes) - See Chaturvasi's comments)
16 - The kind of financing for a shortfall (7) - DEFICIT [DD]
17 - Pantomime character of a porter, I suspect (7) - PIERROT*
19 - Shapiro’s sin is in shielding a composer (7) - ROSSINI [T]
20 - It could open many doors (7) - PASSKEY [E]
21 - The bird that Gordon released (6) - DRONGO* Plenty of them seen in the Andamans
GRID
A mixed bag today.
ReplyDelete12A Thinking alike (2,3,4) OF ONE MIND
24,25D Constituents of a policy of incentive and deterrent (6,3,5) CARROT AND STICK
Answers struck me at first glance.
26A Oates of the Popish Plot (5) TITUS
The sole answer that eluded me. Only a Google search helped, for the first time, in reading about Titus Oates, the author of the 17th century Popish Plot.
2D Food fish gets navy confused about actor-politician (7) ANCHOVY
Thankfully, Cho Ramaswamy is a familiar figure outside Tamil Nadu also because of having appeared on TV panel discussions many a time. Otherwise, solvers from the northern part of India and abroad will have difficulty in cracking such clues. (Incidentally, a lot of Tamil and TN-related clues these days. Maybe, since The Hindu is based in Chennai. Such clues with a local flavour throw up a challenge. I enjoy it, honestly !)
6D Debris thrown up by a worker on a small mountain (7) ANTHILL
While it is true that anthills are found in deserted areas and debris, I wonder if the very anthill could be regarded as 'debris'.
Curious element: Two 15-letter words DISADVANTAGEOUS and SURREPTITIOUSLY cutting across the grid, end-to-end. Rarely found.
Richard
15 - Preliminary races which raise the temperature? Yes, they say (5) - HEATS [DD]
ReplyDeleteNot a DD. A word sum with a homophone element.
raise the temperature- HEAT
Yes, they say - S ("yes"). 'they say' being the homophone ind
CHO (indicated by 'actor-politician') was a very frequent component in Gridman's crossword clues though it does not seem to have appeared in recent times.
ReplyDeleteHe is an all-India figure and I don't think there will be any problem for readers in India.
He is also an editor, writer, speaker and a whole lot of other things.
He is now popular with his TV serial Engey Brahmanan?
My parents love Cho. My father loves his magazine, and uses his words to criticize all politicians. And, my mother uses his TV serial to rebuke my father ;-).
ReplyDeleteCho is an interesting character. Loved his plays and political satire though the satire lost some sting as he started to take sides and his neutrality came into question. But, one thing that he has a great deal of knowledge on and shown a great thinking head for but not what is probably apparent in his "all-India" fame are his writings on Hinduism and its philosophy. At least, that is my impression as these books are mostly (maybe all) on Tamil - since I have not seen his TV appearances / non-Tamil commentary I do not know if he does discuss this topic at a national level.
ReplyDelete'Cho chweet' of you for having responded at once, Chaturvasi. I did mention Cho as being an exception in my post, since he is well known outside TN.
ReplyDeleteThe words 'Thankfully', 'Otherwise' and 'such clues' may specially be noted.
Richard
@Richard,
ReplyDelete6D and Anthill can be cosidered as the debris thrown up by the ants while constructing their anthill
Is Cho still running his magazine 'Tughlak'?
ReplyDeleteIt indeed needs a lot of guts and gumption to name one's periodical with such a historical, partly-despised personality.
Richard
Merriam Webster does seem to corroborate what the Col. says regarding debris and anthills though I first thought the connection was weak as well..
ReplyDeleteQuoting from this link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthill
Quote
Main Entry: ant·hill
Pronunciation: \ˈant-ˌhil\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
: a mound of debris thrown up by ants or termites in digging their nest
Unquote
Yes a mixed bag, some dead easy, some to be googled . Could not get Titus and Pierrot
ReplyDeleteDear Richlas, Tughlak is very much in circulation and it has its own band of diehard readers.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thuglak.com is their website.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Krishan.
ReplyDeleteRichard
@ Krishnan
ReplyDeleteI opened the website at once and admired the remarkable cartoon of Sonia Gandhi and Palanisamy Chidambaram.
But what to do, 'Tamil teriyad.' Would have loved to read the text, if known.
Richard
Good that you admired the cartoon. PC seems to be telling Sonia that we have constituted Srikrishna commission just to buy time on simmering Telengana crisis.
ReplyDelete@ Richard Sir, here is my attempt at a translation meant to be read with the cartoon:
ReplyDeleteSonia: Whether the Sri Krishna Committee gives a favorable or an unfavorable opinion for a separate Telengana state, does it not spell trouble? How will we manage to handle the fallout stemming from whatever the opinion is from the committee?
PC in response: Don’t we need some time to think about how to handle the fallout? That is why we should sit back and relax without thinking about it until the Committee puts out some kind of press announcement on their opinion!
Thanks, Krishnan and Veer. Enjoyed the joke.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Veer, I have not yet been knighted. Will be happy on first-name terms.
Richard
Hi everyone, Does anyone know of a blog like this that tackles the Hindustan Times//Times crossword daily. Please enlighten.
ReplyDeleteAll Hindu//Frontline regular readers are expected to know about Cho wherever in the country they reside. So it is fair game...
@Ajay,
ReplyDeleteDo a google search which will find such a blog if in existence
16 A,
ReplyDeletewhy is record EP ?
@krishna. EP is Elongated play. It was the name for a 45rpm record. LP os Long playing for a 33rpm recrd
ReplyDeleteSorry EP is extended play not elongated play
ReplyDeleteEP (extended play 45 RPM ) LP (Long Playing 33 1/3 RPM and 78 RPM are the 3 forms of yesteryear's gramaphone "records' or discs.
ReplyDeleteThanks Suresh.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know there is no blog or Community for The HT/The Times crossword - which reproduces The Times crosswords from some - hold your breath - eight or ten years ago.
ReplyDeleteHowever I wrote a post when the crossword began appearing - before I realised the ancientness of the crossword.
Here is the link:
http://cgrishikesh.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/the-times-cryptic-21867/
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@chaturvasi Thanks for the info. I know it is ancient but nevertheless for some of us who have not been regularly it does give an alternative. The latest times crosswords are only available by subscription. Alas! Wish there was a forum like this to dissect those clues, some of them fiendishly difficult and extremely challenging.
ReplyDeleteajay
ReplyDeleteAfter your post I visited the HT website.
I have not completed the puzzle in 30 mins that I allotted myself but the results so far are here:
http://dailydozen.blogspot.com/2010/02/ht-times-21758-of-feb-15.html
The partially filled in grid is here:
http://dailydozen.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post.html
Link to blog as a whole instead of ind posts
ReplyDeletehttp://dailydozen.blogspot.com/
I find that the crossword that I blogged in Dec is 21867.
ReplyDeleteToday's is numbered 21758.
Are they going backwards?
@ajay: If you're a regular solver of the HT crossword, why don't you start a dedicated blog/forum about it? Maybe other bloggers can join in and take turns to blog. It's a great crossword and I think deserves the attention.
ReplyDeleteThe 'ancientness' is not that big a failing in my view. Crosswords are not like news that they have to be fresh to be relevant. I for one will be happy to see this crossword being written about.
I have since updated my grid.
ReplyDeleteAfter the after-30-minutes grid, I wrote the post. When I returned to the grid, some on the left side fell quickly.
I have only two to go.
This I could not have done yesterday as I was extremel busy translating a 14-page article from Tamil to English and sending it off; in the evening there was a wedding reception. Today I have been able to squeeze this in.
@Suresh & Dr
ReplyDeleteThanks for EP clarification
Last two three days have been straight forward.
ReplyDeleteThuglak magazine was named Thuglak because Cho became famous for his drama and movie " Mahammed Bin Thuglak", which itself was a satire on politics of the day.
col sir, which do you like more? hindu or express crossword?
ReplyDelete@vck,
ReplyDeleteThe Hindu is definitely better except when NJ and Manna are composing
Thanks Chaturvasi will certainly go and check up.
ReplyDelete@Shuchi Thanks for the suggestion but I am not a regular solver as I first finish the Hindu and that too en route and if I get time I try my hand at the HT one. And I wish I could run more in the 60 secs I have
My comment on the antiquity of the crossword was purely in response to Chaturvasi's earlier comment... However I feel a fresh crossword can and should include words that are for the nonce, timely, fashionable, faddish and ought to include neologisms.. So one can make a case for the temporal value of a crossword