Gridman finishes with a slightly tougher puzzle. Lots of good surfaces and clues in 6A,14A,16A,27A,4D,5D,11D,18D,25D but my CoD is 29A. Understandably he could not have incorporated all the suggested words, but I think he did an excellent job in putting in as many as he did. So here is a big thank you on behalf of the solvers.
ACROSS
1 Enemy to check out, we hear, a warbler from France (8) FAUVETTE (~FOE VET)
6 Put out a butt (4) STUB (E) (DD) See comment from VJ below
9 Say zany guy losing heart in astronomical alignment (6) SYZYGY (SaY ZanY GuY)
10 Neptune qualifies partly as not being the same (7) UNEQUAL (T)
13 Agreed on a mixed drink (9) ORANGEADE (AGREED ON A)* Deja Vu looking at 17D here
14 Man consuming right seafood (5) PRAWN (PAWN outside R)
15 Indeed, one thousand spit (4) YESK (YES + K)
16 The act of waiters not doing their job (10) DISSERVICE (CD)
19 Too far on the circus tent (4-3-3) OVER, THE, TOP (OVER + THE + TOP)
21 Cleaning with hearth powder (4) WASH (W + ASH)
24 Agent returns to see the Italian in danger (5) PERIL (REP<= + IL)
25 Twice knock out zebra's head - hide cruelly in kerala town (9) KOZHIKODE (KO + KO + Z + HIDE)*
26 I will take up one City Improvement Trust that is unlawful (7) ILLICIT (I'LL + I + C.I.T)
27 Ran back to fight for contract (6) NARROW (RAN<= + ROW)
28 Wise men in imagination (4) MAGI (T)
29 Mad party with ol' friend (8) DOOLALLY (DO + OL + ALLY)
DOWN
2 A New Yorker's initial methods, irregardless (7) ANYWAYS (A NY + WAYS)
3 ``... all the -- of their life/ Is bound in shallows and miseries'' (Julius Caesar) (6) VOYAGE (GK)
4 Tasmanian tiger wallowing in the clay (9) THYLACINE (IN THE CLAY)*
5 Gush once with due preparation (5) EXUDE (EX + DUE*)
7 Main disaster from aunts: I'm upset (7) TSUNAMI (AUNTS I'M)*
8 Rest shown by these differently in financial statement (7,5) BALANCE,SHEET (BALANCE + THESE*)
11 Send out pro with love for English (6) EXPORT (EXPeRT with O for E)
12 Ply him with promos variously appearing in many forms (12) POLYMORPHISM (PLY HIM PROMOS)*
17 Such a note is forced - So, Franz, do differently (9) SFORZANDO (SO FRANZ DO)*
18 Such characters aren't upright (6) ITALIC (CD)
20 Sound filter (7) EARPLUG (CD)
22 Cut much in old type of salamander (7) AXOLOTL (AX + LOT inside OL')
23 Riser wanders over a mountain range (6) SIERRA (RISER* + A)
25 Travel pack journalist passed illegally (5) KITED (KIT + ED)
ACROSS
1 Enemy to check out, we hear, a warbler from France (8) FAUVETTE (~FOE VET)
9 Say zany guy losing heart in astronomical alignment (6) SYZYGY (S
13 Agreed on a mixed drink (9) ORANGEADE (AGREED ON A)* Deja Vu looking at 17D here
14 Man consuming right seafood (5) PRAWN (PAWN outside R)
15 Indeed, one thousand spit (4) YESK (YES + K)
16 The act of waiters not doing their job (10) DISSERVICE (CD)
19 Too far on the circus tent (4-3-3) OVER, THE, TOP (OVER + THE + TOP)
21 Cleaning with hearth powder (4) WASH (W + ASH)
24 Agent returns to see the Italian in danger (5) PERIL (REP<= + IL)
25 Twice knock out zebra's head - hide cruelly in kerala town (9) KOZHIKODE (KO + KO + Z + HIDE)*
26 I will take up one City Improvement Trust that is unlawful (7) ILLICIT (I'LL + I + C.I.T)
27 Ran back to fight for contract (6) NARROW (RAN<= + ROW)
28 Wise men in imagination (4) MAGI (T)
29 Mad party with ol' friend (8) DOOLALLY (DO + OL + ALLY)
DOWN
2 A New Yorker's initial methods, irregardless (7) ANYWAYS (A NY + WAYS)
3 ``... all the -- of their life/ Is bound in shallows and miseries'' (Julius Caesar) (6) VOYAGE (GK)
4 Tasmanian tiger wallowing in the clay (9) THYLACINE (IN THE CLAY)*
7 Main disaster from aunts: I'm upset (7) TSUNAMI (AUNTS I'M)*
8 Rest shown by these differently in financial statement (7,5) BALANCE,SHEET (BALANCE + THESE*)
11 Send out pro with love for English (6) EXPORT (EXP
12 Ply him with promos variously appearing in many forms (12) POLYMORPHISM (PLY HIM PROMOS)*
17 Such a note is forced - So, Franz, do differently (9) SFORZANDO (SO FRANZ DO)*
18 Such characters aren't upright (6) ITALIC (CD)
20 Sound filter (7) EARPLUG (CD)
22 Cut much in old type of salamander (7) AXOLOTL (AX + LOT inside OL')
25 Travel pack journalist passed illegally (5) KITED (KIT + ED)
Phew! Began the day with hypertension. The bar seems to have been raised to the sky level today.
ReplyDeleteIs it a PANGRAM today? Well, almost. Couldn't spot J.
Suresh and Kishore may have got BALANCE SHEET in a split second.
Many clues good enough to go OVER THE TOP and beyond. Wondering what Gayathri is going to say.
Who can think of FAUVETTE, SYZYGY (found some taazgi, an element of freshness in this word), SFORZANDO, THYLACINE, AXOLOTL and the like without a little help from search tools?
DOOLALLY, TSUNAMI and POLYMORPHISM took quite some time.
(TSUNAMI brought back the sad memories of my visit to the Marina beach in Chennai in late Dec 2004 for media coverage of just a day after the disaster. Was allowed to enter the area only on production of press ID. But, had the privilege of getting acquainted with Jennifer Arul and Sanjay Pinto of NDTV.)
Saving grace for me - UNEQUAL, ORANGEADE, PRAWN, PERIL, KOZHIKODE, ILLICIT, NARROW, MAGI, EXUDE, ITALIC, EARPLUG, SIERRA fell at first look.
ANYWAYS seems to be a colloquial and often a perceivedly fashionable expression nowadays, although frowned upon by grammarians. The rule says an adverb cannot be in plural and hence ANYWAY is the correct form.
Many such expressions seem to have attained an aura of respectability and acceptability by constant use. Remember having read a comment of displeasure and resentment about ANYWAYS once earlier here in this blog. Maybe the setter included it to generate / spur a discussion. (?) ;-)
I hate the word 'ANYWAYS'
Delete@Colonel: +1
Delete+2 !! I raise both my hands. I was almost sure it can't be 'anyways' and looking for alternatives.
DeleteHi everyone
ReplyDeleteSYZYGY was the word I had requested Gridman to clue in and he has done that wonderfully. Thanks. I had an intuition he would clue in using the literary connotation, but my guess was wrong. BTW this word was missed out in the list displayed here, but GM has not missed it. Was amused to see Sunny (SIERRA) Leone here. Not sure whether I will see the Sierra Madre in the US. YESK was missed out in my first sortie for filling up and DOOLALLY just fell in place because of memories of the wish list. Doolally somehow reminded me of the Muthalalys of Kerala...; does the name come from modalaLi, as used in Tamil for the ‘boss’, the first person, of an unit?
-somewhere in the western sector....
Muthalaly reminded me of Sheela's famous dialogue in Chemmeen:-P
DeleteI still keep humming the tunes by Salil Chowdhury. KaDalinakkare ponore..,PeNNaley PeNaley... Manasa Maine Varu and others. I hope I got the words right. I don't remember the dialogue, though.
DeleteThe last one was sung so soulfully and authentically by Manna Dey.
You surely know your 14a..,
DeleteBut I am a small fry...
DeleteStephen, of course, is a big Fry*.
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry
As was Cadbury Fry in olden days...
No, I was joking. My flight is at the wee hours of tomorrow’s morn. Thanks to all for their good wishes.
ReplyDeletePlum fans may remember Eulalie when penning in Doolallly...
ReplyDeleteCA Prasad having got his Debtors and Creditors earlier can now find his Balance Sheet all done and can proceed to file his corporate income tax returns by the month end deadline (of course, he has time till Nov. end if he is into 92E!)
ReplyDeleteToday's paper has an ad for the release of 108 Letters to the Editor by a celebrity .
ReplyDeleteThis put me in a mood of memories.
I have been writing letters since I was in school final. As a college student I had scores published in the local papers.
When an ad for recruitment of subeditors in IE appeared, I had a degree in Eng Lit but no diploma or degree in 'communication' or 'journalism' (because these courses were negligible in presence in those days). I showed the bunch of published letters to the interviewer as a sample of my writing skills. That exemplified also my interest in what happens around.
Even during my career as a journalism - which involved only editing others' works and not filing reports with your name showing up - I used to send letters to newspapers and magazines.
In keeping cuttings of my published letters I had no pecuniary interest, the collection did come in handy. I stopped preserving the letters not because the collection I had had served its purpose. By nature, the thrill for me was in writing and then seeing it in print. I have no record of hundreds of book reviews published.
For most letters I might not even have used my own name. But the address was quite real!
Imagine my thrill when Outlook republished a letter in one of its anniversay issues.
The published letters are numberless.
I might also add that letters to the editor spring out of a fleeting incident or a casual opinion; they have only evanascent value. A letter published now may need an intro to put it in context of the time when it was used earlier.
The Times of London once published a book in which letters were collected. But these were by various authors and selected carefully by a third person. They were on momentous affairs as well as on trivial subjects.
Re ANYWAYS
ReplyDeleteI too hate it! No way I will use it in my writing. In fact, once when a correspondent used it in his mail to me, I gently demurred. Later I checked Chambers, which records it as 'mainly US, dialect'.
A crossword setter's preferences should not be gauged from the words/phrases that he puts in his grids.
I hate it too, but I will inflict it upon the US, where no doubt, they will take in their stride. I suddenly remembered one my English teachers who used to say: We call it footpath, Englishmen call it pavement and the Americans call it sidewalk.
DeleteI can bet you can even turn the old uncle into Shyam...
DeleteSam-USA is an all time favorite. (I gobbled the u in the last word, so that I can max the TOEFL)
DeleteAs is SAM-BAR, hic!
DeleteI am glad that the blogger has understood the limitations that a setter encounters when he has to necessarily put in words from a given limited list.
ReplyDeleteFor the first crossword in the present series I used a special grid to insert the Nina (which itself is an entry in the wish list that I modified slightly due to exigencies). All the other five grids are the ones I have been using all these years.
Usually my series will have grids 1 to 6 in that order. Every time. This time the five uses one or more of these grids but not all. One or two might even be repeated.
Thanks Gridman
ReplyDeleteWhy no comments on the usage of "irregardless?" While regardless and irregardless are used interchangeably, the latter is often frowned upon by grammar nazis.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I like both "irregardless" and "anyways," or even "anywayz." They got a nice ring to it.
I think 6A is a DD and not an E.
ReplyDeleteLiked this Gridman series. Nice of him to have accepted public request. And interestingly, gotten it published in a real quick time. Kudos!
I used 'irregardless' deliberately (though I wouldn't use this expression in my writing). As the light was ANYWAYS rather than ANYWAY, I used 'irregardless' where 'regardless' might do. A hint at the unusual, dialectic, not-strictly-grammatical word that was required.
ReplyDeleteCan we use words like Couth, Shevelled,
ReplyDeleteGruntled, mayed etc
Lots of cheating required to finish the puzzle mainly for the several, unheard of and unrememberable words, like yesk, sf...something, fauvette, doolally axo...something (unpronounceable too). Tough only on this account. Otherwise not particularly.
ReplyDeleteAnyways it is done.
It is a coincidence that the Tasmanian tiger came up on Bhavan's day out ! Wondering if he was able to get it without any help or is it one of the words suggested by him?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Axolotl, I had always thought of it as Axototl. Quetzalcoatl and Popocatepetl were two things that came to mind with this answer.
ReplyDeleteAxe the total, quiz the chortle, pop a cat petal... all sounds like prittle prattle...
DeleteDear Col,
ReplyDeleteSorry, we have to miss seeing each other. Only the daunting traffic and the distance can be blamed. I didn't realize that BGRE is such an overcrowded city of distances. I tried to call and confirm of my cancelling the evening meeting but inspite of several attempts,the line was not being responded to. My own cell was not on roaming. Better luck , next time. Today again, I'll be embroiled in the wedding affair and visit another old colleague of mine in Indira Nagar.
Take care an God bless.
Regards,
Raju
Camp: Bangalore
Dear Mr Raju, Aren't you pushing your luck: getting embroiled in a wedding and an affair... How do you balance all these things ;-)
Deletesorry to have missed you Raju. Yes B'lore traffic is a nightmare and you were located about 20 KM's from my place. You couldn't get through to me as my phone ran out of charge after youi spoke to me, I could charge it only after I got back home around 6:30. We could have met this evening as I am close to Indira Nagar but unfortunately I have another engagement from 5 onwards.
DeleteThanks a lot Gridman for incorporating our suggested words. Relished immensely.
ReplyDeleteThank you kishore
ReplyDeleteYou summed up my position rightly.30th is the last date for filing the Returns.Also happy journey.My thanks to GM for incorporating all the words
And if it were not for the last minute no work would ever get done.
DeleteThis has now become the last second, thanks to online filing.
DeleteThat confirms my suspicion that Prasad is one who is awake when others are asleep...
DeleteYa esha supteshu jagrati
DeleteComing from a CA:
Delete"Din mein chain nahin, raat mein neend nahin, jee na lage kahin,
Ae khuda kya yeh pyaar ka jaal hai?"
Khuda ne kaha, "Yeh pyaar ka jaal nahin,
CA karne waalon ka haal hai!"
Going by the motto, since the CAs keep awake when others sleep, the money and economy are safe. :-)
Reminds me of an insider joke of CA students:
DeleteWhen a CA student was asked the courses he had to study for, he replied Foundation course, Inter course, and Final course.
CA's are more awake these days trying to figure out which version of java and which browser is compatiable with the income tax website. The online battle with IT Website makes duels with wife like a serenade in the times of romeo and juliet!
Deletenatarajan, ahmedabad
CA's are more awake these days trying to figure out which version of java and which browser is compatiable with the income tax website. The online battle with IT Website makes duels with wife like a serenade in the times of romeo and juliet!
Deletenatarajan, ahmedabad
Thanks Gridman for putting up with & putting in my/our requests. Two of my words made it. Any brickbats for doolally should be directed to me. I Needed the net for yesk, Sfrozando & axolotl. For the Fau part of Fauvette I needed reference to this blog. Hopefully I can remember these words and recall them the next time I come across them in a X word or elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteToday's completes Gridman's neat ....... ?
Ball badminton team left holding the spirit of contest (7)
Ball badminton team perhaps left damaged net inside (7)
Delete{QUI {NTE} T}
Delete:)
DeleteCOME TO THE RESCUE was something that figured in an Everyman I did online recently, and I have to say that Google and Wiki responded nobly
ReplyDeleteOne rarely finds so many last English alphabets on one day!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL1uaiKvTJQ
ReplyDeleteHasta Mañana 'til we meet again
Don't know where, don't know when
Cheerio, folks
Bye then, have a good trip. About meeting- we meet here in a couple of days ( thanks to the shrinking of cyber space) and I am sure you cannot miss more than that- at least we can't !!
ReplyDeleteLot of learning new words today! Liked Kishoreji's 'tongue in cheeks'. The blog will surely miss you for sometime.Have a doolally do!!
ReplyDeleteI can't find a reference to Yesk (- spit) anywhere online. Could someone provide a reference?
ReplyDeleteFrom Chambers:
Deleteyex /yeks/, also yesk /yesk/ (now Scot and dialect)
intransitive verb
To hiccup, belch or spit
Dear Kishore.
ReplyDeleteHasta Mañana 'til we meet again
Don't know where, don't know when
This song took me back to my courting days when I used to visit India , where my wife was living and returning was a wrench and every word of the song was fraught with meaning for both of us.
But then we got married are now together. No email or skype or blogs those days.
Now you certainly can disappear into thin air but not from the Cyberworld!
Except life and Income tax, everything is possible to predict.
Come bac soon to the real world, until then, cyberwporld zindabad.
zzzzzzzzzzzz until then, to keep up with the z words in this crossword.