Saturday 29 January 2011

No 10064, Saturday 29 Jan 11, Gridman

ACROSS
1   - The standing of a celebrity? (8) - PEDESTAL [CD]
5   - Magazine coming out feebly, we hear (6) - WEEKLY(~weakly)
9   - Oriental females close to one respectful address (7) - {E}{FF}{END}{I}
10 - Fellow, do nothing! Di's retailed a piece of information (7) - {F}{ACT}{O}{ID<-}
11 - Can one be sunny about such a scenario? (9) - MOONSCAPE [CD]
12 - Pull art pull made by one learner (5) - {TRA*}{I}{L}
13 - Said to spoil musical instrument (4) - LUTE(~loot)
14 - Evelyn, it'd disintegrate, obviously! (9) - EVIDENTLY*
17 - Its result may be a table (9) - WOODCRAFT [CD] I had Carpentry initially and got stuck
19 - Rail pop's circle (4) - {DAD}{O}Something amiss in the definition
23 - Follow girl going after nurse (5) - {EN}{SUE}
24 - Started dietitian's training (9) - INITIATED*
25 - Sale with lots on offer (7) - AUCTION [CD]
26 - Two millions list in swollen Seine: that's massive! (7) - {I{MM}ENSE*}
27 - One careful about consumption (6) - DIETER [CD]


28 - Stay! Dune is shifting! It will be precarious! (8) - UNSTEADY*
DOWN
1   - Intro by rep confusing! Blame laid out! (8) - {PRE*}{AMBLE*}
2   - Agent up on platform, spilling drink, to thaw out (7) - {DEF<-}{ROSTrum}
3   - Most sound army dwelling (6) - SA{NEST} Anno for SA pending (Addendum - SA comes from Salvation Army thanks to CV at the Orkut group.)
4   - San Marino dive blasted! That's harsh criticism! (13) - ANIMADVERSION* New word for me
6   - Turning on former townsman, one no good (8) - {EX}{CIT}{I}{N}{G} Anno for CIT not clear (Addendum - See comments)
7   - Wiseacre corrected on walk round centre of Kolar (4-3) - {KNOWA{L}L*}


8   - Shouts at unknown oldies running away, deserting one (6) - {Y}{ODELSi*}
10 - What is in it will be in your ken (5,2,6) - FIELD OF VISION [CD]
15 - Advantage West Indies corner laterally (8) - {EDGE}{WI}{SE}
16 - The military to adhere around one armoury at last (8) -{SOLD{I}ER}{Y}
18 - Commanding Officer — one less affected by bone (7) - OSS(I)CLE*
20 - After worker, girl will return feeler (7) - {ANT}{ENNA<-}
21 - See change of gear on road (6) - {REGA*}{RD}
22 - Fate of Karnataka's leader is settled (6) - {K}{IS}{MET}



21 comments:

  1. Took a long time to get on to the PEDESTAL.Struggled again with carpentry before settling with woodcraft thanks to crossings.On the whole,enjoyed a quick smooth flowing CW.COD?-has to be 2D-defrost

    ReplyDelete
  2. 6 - Turning on former townsman, one no good (8) - {EX}{CIT}{I}{N}{G} Anno for CIT not clear

    CIT: A citizen; an inhabitant of a city (Wordweb)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Deepak

    Thanks for introducing difficulty levels to reactions, heeding to my suggestion.

    However, it appears that Reactions on the blog does not admit two lines. (Or can it be tweaked somewhere? Anyone know?)

    Well, my suggestion would be that you remove the second line altogether and just have "Hard".

    If it's ticked, we would know it's considered hard by so many solvers.

    If not, it shouldn't be hard!. Other categories of difficulty above or below or in between Hard do not matter!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deepak
    I saw the cartoon for Know-all.
    Well, sometimes I do something w/o the knowledge of the better half, but within a few hours/days she guesses it and refers to what I have done! So I am always the worse for it!
    And she has not read any encyclopaedia!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Reactions can be put in one line only. So i think I shall make it tough and easy only.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ihave made the reactions Good and Poor and Tough and easy that should make things simple now. So the CW is either Good or Poor and it is either Tough or Easy.
    So we can have combinations of Good/Tough, Good/Easy, Poor/Tough and Poor/Easy

    ReplyDelete
  7. My COD 28A. Kicking myself for not getting sanest.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Deepak
    Thanks again! It's simple and also gives both reactions as to quality and difficulty.
    I appreciate your being responsive to the suggestions of your followers!

    ReplyDelete
  9. 7d my COD

    Remembered an anecdote about the US president who was supposed to visit the oldest lady and enquire after her health. On meeting, she was supposed to say "How do you do ?" to which he was supposed to reply "Fine, how do you do ?" to which the lady was supposed to say "Likewise".

    All went fine, until the lady replied "Wise guy".

    ReplyDelete
  10. Also liked the idly-oo.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Try this puzzle:

    http://dailydozen.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-post.html

    ReplyDelete
  12. @ Col: Due respect to CV sir's wishes, but I do believe that a Good/Bad, Easy/Hard categorization is too rigid. I think there should at least be a mid level... good/ok/bad and hard/not-too-hard/easy...

    that allows for at least a middle ground... which isn't there right now. :)

    thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Hari: Touche to your comment. Another thing to ponder over is about having a Fair/Not quite fair/Unfair, where the fairness is with respect to cluing. That would eliminate subjectivity to some extent. Good/poor is a bit tenuous imho.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have decided against mid-levels. Either one likes it or doesn't like it and one finds it easy or tough. Not too easy and not quite fair is not easy to judge

    ReplyDelete
  15. Couple of qualms/questions/whathaveyous:

    11A - Moonscape to describe a scenario (which is an event, or a series of events)?

    13A - isn't the word for loot, spoils (pl.)?

    8D - is the definition the setter's general reaction to yodelling? :D ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. My response to Navneeth's q/q/w

    11A - Moonscape to describe a scenario (which is an event, or a series of events)?
    ***You're right, broadly! As an editor, I have often changed 'scenario' to 'scene' in copy that I handled.
    However, 'scenario' does have the sense 'situation' in Chambers.
    The def may be termed a bit loose but it's not wrong.

    13A - isn't the word for loot, spoils (pl.)?
    ***Nice to be fielding such a question.
    It is quite understandable that the solver has such a reservation. While revising the clue sheet, I did consider it. In the clue 'spoil' may be taken as a verb, not noun. Meaning is 'loot' (also a v.).
    8D - is the definition the setter's general reaction to yodelling? :D ;-)
    You should hear me laugh. My f-i-l was shocked!
    In the office canteen heads turned when I guffawed. Yesterday at the book club meeting, I had two well-known Tamil/English writers (mind you, not Tinglish; both write in either language with equal felicity) for company and I laughed similarly when one (a humour writer par excellence) cracked a joke. Immediately I asked him whether it was good manners to have laughed like I did. He said 'no'. Then I told him not to 'tell me another' in public meetings.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hari
    As Blogger does not admit two lines in Reactions and second line, if any, does not show perfectly, a suggestion was made to confine Reactions to one line, including also the difficulty aspect.
    That is why the Col has not included In-betweens.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Regarding
    19 - Rail pop's circle (4) - {DAD}{O}Something amiss in the definition:
    one meaning of the word dado is "a rectangular groove cut into a board so that another piece can fit into it." This could be the provenance for rail in the clue. You can find a diagram of a dado here.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Following up on my comment above, a better fit would be the meaning as used in architecture. I refer you to this.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Solvers are quite within their rights to think whatever about clues.
    However, I merely answer any question that's raised.
    The thinking behind the clue 'Rail pop's circle' was:
    rail = border = DADO.
    'Rail' was chosen for surface reading. It means 'criticise' and goes with the subsequent words pop's (Dad's) circle [of friends, such as drinking companions]

    ReplyDelete

deepakgita@gmail.com