1 - The born artist turns detestable and … (9) - {A}BHO{R}RENT*
5 - …. ponders about the goddesses of the arts (5) - MUSES [DD]
8 - Doctor, English, in motor, finds curvature on the road (6) - CA{MB}{E}R
9 - Old Poet Laureate sent on New York trip (8) - TEN{NY}SON*
11 - An opening to check trapped Nationalist (4) - VE{N}T
12 - Dedication shown by Tim reflected in observation (10) - COM{MIT<-}MENT
14 - Cast off for value returned (5) - THROW*
15 - Is Satan about to play a game? (7) - {C}{ANAST*}{A}
16 - The plant to put a motor out (7) - {CAR}{AWAY}
22 - Um, lust is possibly an incentive for activity (8) - STIMULUS*
23 - Money back (6) - REFUND [E]
24 - A stiff drink? My, unusual!! (5) - {RUM}{MY}
25 - A meeting that could be deadly for a fleeing criminal (9) - ENCOUNTER [CD]
DOWN
1 - A recess in a surreal cover (6) - ALCOVE [T]
2 - Benevolence — minus it, Maharani crumbles (15) - HUMANITARIANISM*
3 - Flightless bird? We hear otherwise (4) - RHEA*
5 - Tediously uniform like a single note being played (10) - MONOTONOUS [E] Anyone recall the Ajit joke on this?
6 - A tale of excitement and tension apparently pending decision on permanent posting? (8,7) - {SUSPENSE} {ACCOUNT}
7 - Candid old singer (7) - (frank) SINATRA [E]
10 - The tree to make a Nordic state neat and smart, perhaps (6,6) - {NORWAY} {SPRUCE}
16 - Less refined way to go, you say? Right (7) - (~course){COARSE}{R}
18 - Metal worker beginning to work on tree (6) - {W}{ELDER}
21 - It provides a choice to the consumer (4) - MENU [E]
Hi everybody
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle today. Some cute anagrams.
Liked TENNYSON, ADAM'S APPLE, ENCOUNTER, HUMANITARIANISM, SUSPENSE ACCOUNT, NORWAY SPRUCE, BROWN STUDY and a few others.
13D - male, stud, hmmmm...
@ Deepak, I do remember that joke: 'Mona, tum Madh Islan jaao, aur mera intezar karo. Tony, tum bhi wahin jaao aur mera intezar karo. Lekin dono saath mein nahin jaana. Woh MONOTONY ho jaayegi.'
ReplyDeletecorrection: Madh Island.
ReplyDeleteTENNYSON MUSES that SINATRA finds it ABHORRENT to THROW products from the MENU containing COARSER RHEA meat or CARAWAY past the ACME of his UVULA towards his ADAM’S APPLE when playing RUMMY or CANASTA when ENCOUNTER(ing) a structure with ALCOVE(s), CAMBER(s) or VENT(s) than conducting a MONOTONOUS BROWN STUDY of SUSPENSE ACCOUNTS of THERMOCOUPLE WELDER(s’) COMMITMENT to HUMANITARIANISM or STIMULUS for REFUND in respect of NORWAY SPRUCE.
ReplyDeleteBest clue was 7d Candid old singer: (Frank) Sinatra.
@ Richard: Shenoy is said to be a corruption of Shad-navi (ninety six) being the number of original migrating families and is spelled with variants like Xenvi, Xenoy and Sinai in Goa.
ReplyDeleteAlso good to remember Hamid
14 A Throw is not Worth returned?
ReplyDelete14 - Cast off for value returned (5) - THROW*
ReplyDeleteTHROW <-
Here's another one,
ReplyDeleteAjeet: Mona, tum Toni se shaadi mat karnaa, bahut mona-toni ho jaegi.
@Sandhya,
ReplyDeleteWhat does WORHT mean?
13D Male for Stud - is it uncommon usage in clues?
ReplyDelete@ Deepak, that too sounds good.
ReplyDeleteLater on, could we exchange some 'Ajitisms' just to pep up the mood here?
Not quite on the MONOTONY theme but here is another "Ajitism".
ReplyDeleteAjit: Mujhe sirf teen cheez pasand hai - mona, sona, aur mona ke saath sona.
Plenty available on the net see AJITISMS
ReplyDelete@Colonel: Sorry, didn't check properly :((
ReplyDeleteMona had two sons, Ajit's advice for naming was Peter and Repeater. Tony had two daughters, Ajit suggested Kate and Dupli-cate
ReplyDeleteAnother Ajitism:
ReplyDeleteRaabert: Baas, hum-ne Jaggu ko khatam kar diya. Lekin uski laash wahan raste pe padi hai. Use kya karen?
Ajit: Uske 'side' mein, ek sui ghusa do. Taake police samajhe ki yeh 'sui-side' ka case hai.
(sui=needle)
25 A Encounter of late has become a popular word in India and not just in the English language what with Encounter specialists among the police.
ReplyDeleteAs Ajit jokes are floating around, here's one more on torture Ajit style (may be known to most people here) Usko liquid Oxygen tank me pehk dho, liquid usko jeene nahi dengi, oxygen usko marne nahi dengi
ReplyDeleteIn a play that I had acted in we twisted the above joke to critcise the mosquitoes in the hospital complex at Port Blair, the hospital being INHS Dhanvantri
ReplyDelete"Usko DHANVANTRI ke chath pe phenk dho, Machar usko jeene nahi degi, aur Doctor usko marne nahi degi"
Here is one that is not listed in the link Colonel provided:
ReplyDeleteRobert: Boss, meri biwi ko triplets paida huye. Unka kya naam doon?
Ajit: Pahle ka naam Ram, doosre ka Lakshman, aur teesre ka Sung-Chung.
Robert: Teesre ka naam Sung-Chung? Woh kyun boss?
Ajit: Abey bewakoof, jaanta nahin? Statistics ke mutaabik, is duniyan mein paida hone waala har teesra bacha Chinese hota hai.
Are we being nicer to one of our more favored THC setters?
ReplyDeleteI have a bone to pick with two of the clues as being somewhat unfair and hence, very non-Sankalak and presumably unXimenean..
14 - Cast off for value returned (5) - THROW*
An indirect anagram is generally frowned upon as being unfair to the solver in asking him/her to follow the setter's stream of thought not readily apparent from the clue..Maybe Sankalak himself may have fallen for the same reversal error that was pointed out in the comments?
10 - The tree to make a Nordic state neat and smart, perhaps (6,6) - {NORWAY} {SPRUCE}
Clearly, from the crossings this is the only answer. But the clue also yields Danish Spruce as an answer with the same enumeration and word play.
A similar clue last week by a different setter who is not quite so favored was picked on fairly, IMHO: 27 - A known timber tree (3) - ASH ? Why ASH why not OAK ? (THC 9821). Both these clues suffer from at least one similar problem: once the solution is had, the word play and enu does not give the solution as the unique one - I believe that would violate one of the tenets that fair clues are judged upon..
comments? criticism?
Thank you
Veer
I must admit that these Ajit jokes are new to me.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak Hindi but I do know Hindi and I perfectly understand every word of all the jokes above.
Pardon my ignorance, but why are they knowna s Ajit jokes?
Veer: Re the issue you've raised: I will leave it to others to respond if they so wish.
Danish spruce? A tree... I ain't really sure about that.... Even if there was such a thing, it'd not make it a "nordic state." Had there been a Denmark spruce, you'd have been right.
ReplyDelete@Chaturvasi,
ReplyDeleteAjit is the name of an actor who stars in villian roles in Hindi movies. He had an inimicable style of speaking, esecially with english. In one movie I think it was Zanjeer, with Amitabh & Jaya Bhaduri, he would pronounce LION as LOIN and LION was read as NO17 (when seen upsied down). I am sure you have seen Zanjeer
@Dan: I stand corrected on the Danish spruce assertion: after I wrote the comment, I went and did some searches on the www. Wiki does list all kinds of spruces but not a Danish one, though google does throw up all kinds of Danish spruce forests (does not mean there is such a genus though). A bit of an early jump on my part, and apologies to Sankalak and other readers on that.
ReplyDelete@Veer
ReplyDeleteWhat does IMHO stand for?
@COL
Would the style be inimicable or inimitable (defying imitation)?
Incidentally, Zanjeer was also made into a Tamil movie starring MGR
IMHO: In My Honest Opinion (one of the early texting / blogging / short note abbreviations, thanks to the internet proliferation..)
ReplyDelete@Venkatesh,
ReplyDeleteI did mean inimicable (Unfriendly; hostile: a cold, inimical voice)
There are plenty of Actors who imitate Ajit (Hamid Ali Khan) including his own son (Shehzad Khan) who acted like him in the Hindi movie 'Andaaz Apna Apna' with Salman and Amir Khan.
ReplyDeleteA few famous utterances of Ajit for CV's benefit
"Mona Darling", "Smart boy", "Lili don't be silly"
I was under the impression IMHO stood for In My Humble Opinion
ReplyDeleteSo, sometimes I used to say IMnot-so-humbleO
The free dictionary web site lists several IMHO acronyms:
ReplyDeleteIMHO In My Humble Opinion
IMHO In My Honest Opinion
IMHO In My Holy Opinion
IMHO In My Hesitating Opinion
IMHO In My Highest Opinion
IMHO, in common usage we can say the H is either humble or honest..
@CV, Veer,
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying the doubt. Here's one more:
I have seen the words 'inimical' and 'inimicality' being used. But, inimicable for a style of speaking is new. Please clarify whether this is an accepted usage.
solved thc and guardian quick crossword today with your help and gqc No12403for a few difficult ones. but solved teie crossword on my own. i need help in understanding the answer for 1ac two sorts of bacon and game(10) - backgammon
ReplyDelete@Col: It was not Zanjeer, it was Kalicharan where Ajit comes out with the 'log mujhe pyar se LOIN kehte hain' line. It was a Shatrughan Sinha movie, not an Amitabh one.
ReplyDeleteHere's another genuine one.
Sidekick: Boss, police ne hamare adde pe chhapa maar diya hai aur saara maal baramat kar lee.
Ajit: achchha, tum raabert ko lekar khufiya hawai adda pahunch jao. main vahan tum se miloonga.
Sidekick: OK, baas
Ajit: Aur haan, Silvia se keh dena ke woh kapde pehen le.
muthiah, back is bacon and so is gammon.
ReplyDelete@LNS,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification on the LOIN issue.
I didn't get the last Ajit joke, is something missing in the quip?
@Col:
ReplyDelete:)
The Baas is human. Amid all the smuggling, gunrunning, shooting, dumping traitors in liquid oxygen etc, he does try to have a private moment with his lady friend. His darned luck that bad news of police raids etc usually interrupts such a private moment. He plans to skip out of the country in one of them sleek choppers, that's why he's rushing to the secret airfield. Who says there's no gallantry among the good folk who indulge in the perilous pastime of gold smuggling? He doesn't want Silvia to wait for her.
So in a sense, this message to Silvia is no less of a turning point than Ilsa's note to Rick when she fails to join him on that train to Marseilles in 'Casablanca'. When Ajit says, "Mona, darrling", it's the exact equivalent of 'Here's looking at you, kid' :) We never get to know what happens to the heartbroken Silvia - does she go and bury herself in a bar in Goa where she tries to forget the Baas? This must be the greatest untold story of Hindi filmdom :)
Sorry - this is one of my favorite topics :)
super jokes
ReplyDeleteWith apologies to all concerned:
ReplyDeleteAnother variation of torture Ajit-style: "......Nahin to usko 'The Hindu 'Craassword' pujjle' ka anagram clue de do, uska REAL FUN se FUNERAL ho jaayega..."
@Richard:
ReplyDelete:)
Since there is nothing else to write home about, pardon me for still hovering over Ajit.
ReplyDeleteI wanted a write a brief tribute to Ajit earlier today and was waiting for the latter part of the day when the dust would settle. But the Colonel has already touched upon the salient points I had in mind.
Hamid Ali Khan (1922-1998), whose screen name was Ajit, had played leading roles in the initial years. With debonair looks and distinct hairstyle, he had regularly modelled for BRYLCREAM hair cream. READERS' DIGEST - and if I am not mistaken, The Illustrated Weekly of India also - regularly carried those ads in the 1960s.
One of the memorable, non-villanours roles he played was in MUGHAL-E-AZAM. The character was of one of Salim or Jahangir's close confidants, Durjan Singh. (@ Kishore, remembered your Surgeon vs Durjan reference a few days earlier.)
I wonder if old-timers of Chennai in particular and Tamil Nadu in general would remember a glossy English film magazine called PICTURPOST which was being published from Chennai, then Madras, between late 1950s or early 1960s and mid-1970s. Its size was that of a student's guide-book. I cannot recollect the names in the editorial board nor the publishers' banner.
In spite of the passionate anti-Hindi mood in the Madras state of during those days, it used to devote a large chunk of pages to Bollywood news and pictures. (The term Bollywood had not been coined those days.)
Given the technology of that era, its quality in terms of pictures and paper was something not found in magazines published from other parts of the country. Ajit and Nalini Jaywant were regularly featured therein as a popular romantic pair. I am sure some of our friends here will be able to recall the name and memories of PICTURPOST.
What Ajit's son Shehzad has since done in some comedy and talk shows - one of them was Ooh-La-La with Ruby Bhatia as anchor - was a pale imitation of his father, in my opinion. But comedian Jagdeep's son, Jaaved Jaafferi, of the Boogie-Woogie show fame, did a shade better than Ajit Jr.
I think the 'Pesum Padam' was a Tamil version of the 'Picturpost' with slight difference in content.
ReplyDeletebtw, Ajit played the lead role in some early films in the 50's. I can't recall the names right now.
@ Richard: Hamid, as mentioned in my 834am post, also called Durjan in more than one film (Nastik was another), was referred by me as the loin in the Lion-cloth (the spellings are purposely messed up) in one of my earlier punch lines.
ReplyDeleteOf course I do remember Picturpost and Pesumpadam. A magazine similar to the latter was Gundoosi, the office of which was a couple of doors away from our then independent house.
ReplyDeleteI was a reader of Filmfare of yesteryear. Now I don't read it or Femina or India Today for that matter: the character of all these has changed: they have become bulkier with accent on pix and ads rather than on text.
@Richard: I was wondering if you are the person who once did a story on my collegemate M Lobo (of Mangalore). Lobo and I belonged to a crossword group in college!
ReplyDelete@ LNS: By chance, is that Michael Lobo who studied in Yercaud who you are referring to ? If so, you are on the dot !
ReplyDeleteHe has settled down in Mangalore after a PhD from IISc Bangalore and a teaching stint in the UK, and is still doing the crosswords. In fact, I have been spurring him to start doing THC.
@CV: All the talk of Madras or Chennai made me blow up your profile picture and lo and behold, both turned up. BTW I started my life in T Nagar. My maternal grandfather was in Madras for over 50 years. The house where he used to live still stands in Madley Street: I made it a point to visit the place the last time I was in Chennai a couple of months back and take a photo for my mother who was a student of the Sharada Vidyalaya there. Tamil was the second language I learnt after my mother tongue and my first audience was a cockerel whom I used to address as "Yenna Da KoLi", an epithet that stuck to me for many years.
ReplyDelete@Richard: Lobo and I were in IISc at the same time. He was a chess player who I guess was trained to retain a picture of the board at any time. He did the same with crosswords. He'd read it in his room in the morning once and then be off. While he was walking to the Mess or to work, he could solve the puzzle. He had a complete picture of the grid and the clues in his head. His memory was so good that he could tell you 17 dn needed a 'U' in the fourth place because he had already solved say 21 ac which had a 'U' at the interlocking square.
ReplyDeleteI learnt some observational astronomy from him. Naturally, he knew the names of all the visible stars - most had Arabic names!
He was something else.
Pesum Padam - brings back memories. There used to be another film magazine called Bommai. I am talking of the mid to late seventies, and perhaps into the eighties (not sure). There was a Star and Style to compete with Filmfare. Only the Filmfare survives. There were also the tabloids from Bombay - Blitz and Current. Illsutrated weekly used to live up to its name with lots of pictures.
ReplyDeletePics of newlyweds over two pages.
ReplyDeleteRemember?
@ CV: Of course, if you are referring to the Illustrated Weekly. And what about the crossword with an entry fee of a rupee?
ReplyDelete@ LNS: The jigsaw puzzle is complete. Just had a phone talk with Michael Lobo. He distinctly remembers a 'Krishnan'. He is currently working on his 8000-plus-page magnum opus: The History of Mangalorean Catholic Community.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to my write-up on him, published a few years ago in a website of which I was the Resident Editor.
http://www.daijiworld.com/chan/achievers_view.asp?a_id=10
Time to renew your bonds with this genius. With his permission, I am providing you with his email ID: dr.michael.lobo@gmail.com.
He wanted to know your current place of residence. I made a guess as Michigan,USA.
@Richard: That's me. I went by 'Krishnan' those days. I saw Michael's Wikipedia entry and learnt that he had become a genealogy guru. I bet he retains the 8,000 pages of his manuscript right in his head!
ReplyDelete@ LNS: I hope the Colonel won't throw us out for all this shop-talk.
ReplyDelete