Thursday 19 August 2010

No 9925, Thursday 19 Aug 10, Sankalak

I had MOLAR at 12A and was stuck for ages
ACROSS
1   - Up-to-date technology leaves a hot aftertaste, oddly (5,2,3,3) - STATE OF THE ART*
10 - What comes out of Neyveli (9) - BRIQUETTE [CD] Poor clue. I don't think the Lignite from Neyveli are made into Briquettes anymore.
11 - Kind of language used in elementary anecdotes (5) - ARYAN [T]
12 - Oral grinder, for one (5) - TOOTH [CD]
13 - Sacred writing for political group, Danish variety (9) - {UPA}{NISHAD*}
14 - Giving a colour to leaving for good, say (6) - DYEING(~dying)
16 - He is very choosy about his food (5) - VEGAN [CD] A poor CD in my opinion
19 - Popular non-professional decoration (5) - {IN}{LAY}
20 - Rout of French — an accomplishment (6) - {DE}{FEAT}
25 - Ma's trance disturbed by religious rite (9) - SACRAMENT*
26 - Fitness without a trace of labour in open tract of land (5) - HEAlTH
27 - Explorer of diamonds, dissolute man (5) - {D}{RAKE}
28 - Fashionable, long-suffering one in hospital (9) - {IN}{PATIENT}
29 - Modern means of communication can lull chaperone (8,5) - CELLULAR PHONE* Nice one


DOWN
2   - Made to measure (8) - TAILORED [E]
3   - Sense one makes of a request for money (5) - TOUCH [CD] Poor clue (Addendum - [DD] - I stand corrected. See comments)
4   - Work on an agent to not take part in a thing (3,3) - {OP}{T OUT}
5   - Youngster a bit short of a score? (8) - TEENAGER [CD]
6   - Destroy idea? React wildly (9) - ERADICATE*
7   - The beat in music … (6) - RHYTHM [E]
8   - … reduced for a time in a place of rest (6) - {A{B{A}{T}ED}
9   - A new piece of verse, “Terminal in Cell” (5) - {A}{N}{ODE}
15 - Matchless in France (9) - NONPAREIL [E]
17 - Important partner, liar reformed (8) - {MATE}{RIAL*}
18 - Dolphin, say, with energy and ecstasy, can act funny (8) - {C{E}TAC{E}AN*}
21 - Note about a big success in Pacific island (6) - {T{A}{HIT}I} I would love to live here.
22 - Stage whisper, say (5) - ASIDE [CD]
23 - Gambling game in the South-east is a predicament (6) - {S{CRAP}E}
24 - Sending back the right musical work about time with apathy (6) - {S{T}UPO<-}{R}
26 - Hot craving causes a hold up (5) - {H}{ITCH}

28 comments:

  1. Hi folks

    Yet another good puzzle. A bit of challenge here and there.

    STATE OF THE ART (Mustn't this, being an adjective, have three hyphens in between? Over to experts), BRIQUETTE, ARYAN, TOOTH, UPANISHAD, DYEING, VEGAN, INLAY, DEFEAT, SACRAMENT, HEATH, DRAKE, INPATIENT, CELLULAR PHONE, TAILORED, TOUCH (anno not clear), OPT OUT, TEENAGER, ERADICATE, RHYTHM, ABATED, ANODE, NONPAREIL, MATERIAL, CETACEAN, TAHITI, ASIDE, SCRAPE, STUPOR, HITCH - all fell well.

    26D - 'Hold-up' should have had a hyphen. In its absence, the word 'up' in the clue wrongly suggests a reversal. (Or was it intended?)

    17D - Our auditor friends should be happy to read this. Cheques and instruments with 'material' alterations are bound to be returned - from the 'fossilized' memory of my banking days.

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  2. Hi
    Using CRAP in the singular sense in 23d instead of CRAPS, the game was NON PAREIL STATE OF THE ART male-cow-dropping.
    Gridless, 12a had me foxed, TOOTH or Molar. The return of the ellipses in 7-8d was nice.
    I hate the words CELLULAR PHONE, reminds me of Andaman (Col, nudge nudge), I prefer MOBILE PHONE. I have heard people say my Cell Number is ... . (Do I use four dots when using an ellipsis with a full stop after it ? )

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  3. Kishore,
    I also had the same doubt about Crap, however it appears that the game is also spelt as Crap

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  4. Good morning Colonel and others

    I agree that 12A is vague and 16A isn't very good either. I like 3D - it is a double-definition, not a CD. Touch is a request for money.

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  5. Except that I would have no space between the last dot of the ellipsis and the full stop.
    I use three dots for ellipsis in between, ellipsis at the end of any incomplete sentence. But if the sentence is complete and there is an ellipsis, it's four dots.

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  6. Kishore 08:36

    Your coinage 'male cow dropping' was innovative. Added to that now there is 'crap'...

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  7. That is what I was referring to ....

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  8. That was an ellipsis with 33 1/3% extra free !

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  9. Shuchi: Yup, Bertie Wooster/Monty Bodkin are usually touched by such requests from their friends who have been unlucky in their flutters at sure things.

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  10. Agree with Suchi on 3D. It ain't a bad clue.

    Touch could mean asking somebody for money. I'd not have known about this usage if had not read Wodehouse. He seemed to have used this word (in this sense) in almost every one of his books.

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  11. That reminds me of a poster I once had:

    A friend in need is no friend of mine.

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  12. Also, Khoday's obituary ad on passing away of JH Patel: A friend in need is no longer in need.

    Quite a double meaning, keeping in view that JHP was reputed to be a large consumer of their products.

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  13. Off to Catherine of Braganza's dowry today and hence possibly off the roster tomorrow. A little bird told me that Bom Bahia is probably the wrong origin, as Bom in Portuguese is masculine and Bahia is feminine, so the phrase would be bad usage.

    Anyhow, BRIQUETTE reminded me of a puzzle I had made a couple of years back,which is reproduced below:

    You have heard of words like ‘kitchenette’ or ‘nymphet’ signifying a small kitchen or a small nymph. But sometimes, remove the ‘et’ sound or letters and the left over does not have a meaning eg.’marmoset’. Plenty of these too, but some in more cases, you may get a valid word but with an unconnected meaning or a meaning not apparently connected. Some clues below will guide you to such words:

    1.A brick structure holding cash
    2. The projectile part of a round hits central circle
    3.Half north African people wearing a soft round woolen cap
    4.Harmless cartridge keeps you warm
    5.Soldiers’ quarter in the US gives you the American check in UK
    6.Scheme goes round the sun
    7.Old European capital is a headgear
    8.Poem written by a male descendant
    9.Principles of the basis of decimal system
    10.An opening pendant secures things
    11.Tutu dances to soccer round
    12.An ungentlemanly military trainee
    13. A young hare uses a jemmy tool

    These clues have reference both to the whole word and the meaningful truncated word.

    For eg: Chinese ship on a trip => junket

    Let see who is lucky in getting all thirteen.

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  14. To keep the offer open to subsequent triers, I request my friends to send their answers to me at kishoremrao@hotmail.com

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  15. Richard 844: I usually use 'undiluted' before that phrase.

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  16. Chaturvasi, what's the answer to your yesterday's clue?

    "Think it's the one under detective's gaze (7)"

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  17. The clue was from my dB of Gridman's clues.

    Suresh gave the correct answer, though he had put a question mark at the end.

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  18. I presume it's a DD then. I read Suresh's answer, but I had my doubts. I was particularly concerned on the choice of pronoun i.e. "it." When we see the word "suspect" used in that context, we take it to mean a person. Well "it" didn't seem to fit the way I saw it.

    Or have i gotten it wrong? Thoughts?

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  19. Ah, I almost forestalled that comment of yours!

    I too had that doubt momentarily. But, after a few moments of consideration, I concluded that Gridman was correct.

    Let's say someone asks you "Who's at the door?"

    What will be your answer? "It is the courier." This doesn't mean that the courier is an inanimate object.

    I don't know the grammatical terms, though.

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  20. I split it as "Think" and "it's the one under detective's gaze."

    I just realized that it could also be split as "Think it's the one" and "under detective's gaze."

    I think it's all right if it's the second one.

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  21. Perhaps you must take "it" to indicate the solution that you're looking for!

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  22. The various questions posed above was the reason for the question mark

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  23. The talk of double negatives has taken me to early 60's. I have come across this brain teaser in Science Reporter of that time.

    A person, after travelling for a long time reached a point where the road is forking into two villages - one of liers and the other of satyavans.

    He has to reach the village of liars. There was no sign post. But to help him out of this fix,a man from one of these villages was present at that junction on SUMAITHANGI.

    He may be asked only one question,which he answered,to help the traveller to reach his destination.

    What may be the question?
    Many answers are possible. My answer I will post tommorow.

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  24. Which direction is the village you are from?

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  25. The answer published in the next issue was a compound sentance - double true or double false leading to true - a NXOR gate result(Boolean).
    I require a simple logical answer please.

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  26. Giridhar has nailed it. My answer was ' Show me the way to your village'

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  27. Notice the direction given by him. You take the opposite direction to reach the village of liars.

    Corollary.

    What should have been the question if your destination is the other village?
    No change. Only take the direction shown.

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  28. It was interesting to see 9Dn especially since CVasi sir brought it up just a few days back.

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