Tuesday 21 May 2013

No.10778, Tuesday 21 May 13, Sankalak

Sankalak as is his wont, opens with a puzzle that teases gently and taxes not. Liked BLEACHING POWDER, DESPOTIC, FRUGAL, TRAINING COLLEGE, THIN and TUNIC

ACROSS
1 Take care of the little one! (4-3) BABY-SIT (E)
5 Friend, fit and genial (7) AMIABLE (AMI + ABLE)
9 Big wonder, chapel treated with a whitener (9,6) BLEACHING, POWDER (BIG WONDER CHAPEL)*
10 The output of one like Sahir Ludhianvi (6) LYRICS (E)
11 The hour for sport — or to mess around with a weekly (4,4) PLAY, TIME (PLAY + TIME)
13 Store in-charge, with a trace of sadism, is tyrannical (8) DESPOTIC (DEPOT + IC outside S)
15 Songbird or cat? Songbird (6) TOMTIT (TOM + TIT)
18 “Hail to thee, __ Spirit” (Shelley) (6) BLITHE (GK)


19 One crazy about paan — or supari! (5,3) BETEL, NUT (BETEL + NUT)
22 The driving force of the success-hungry (8) AMBITION (CD)
24 Around university, French lass is careful with money (6) FRUGAL (FR + GAL outside U)
27 Where would be teachers are taught general logic in time somehow (8,7) TRAINING, COLLEGE (GENERAL LOGIN IN T)*
28 Knocks out journalist stuck in pipes (7) DEDUCTS (ED inside DUCTS)
29 Penny gets a revolutionary despatched, we hear (3,4) RED, CENT (RED + ~SENT)

DOWN
1 Black, sailor, felt great pity but chattered about it (7) BABBLED (B + AB + BLED)
2 The French in a pub are obscure to the view (5) BLEAR (LE inside BAR)
3 Coarse stuff for a conservative British advocate steeped in indolence (9) SACKCLOTH (A C KC inside SLOTH)
4 Slender object reduced at the tip (4) THIN (THINg)
5 Spiritual being, a German stateswoman (6) ANGELA (ANGEL + A)
6 Valuable tooth caught out of dubious victory (5) IVORY (VIctORY)*
7 Poor quality spice working in a cooling drink (9) BADMINTON (BAD + MINT + ON)
8 Such money means a promise of what is to come (7) EARNEST (E)
12 Vigour needed for victory over one maiden (3) VIM (V + I + M)
14 Simple craft for wily Basil on twisted road (9) SAILBOARD (BASIL ROAD)*
16 Done with and decided to be disallowed (9) OVERRULED (OVER + RULED)
17 Busy one associated with spelling (3) BEE (C&DD)
18 Leader of battalion endured being attacked (7) BLASTED (B + LASTED)
20 Every one included in trial for the most elevated (7) TALLEST (ALL inside TEST)
21 Limits // jumps (6) BOUNDS (DD)
23 A jacket cut in odd shape (5) TUNIC (CUT IN)*
25 These egrets going up escort other birds (5) GEESE (T<=)
26 Mark left by endless dread (4) SCAR (SCARe)


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24 comments:

  1. Suresh21 May 2013 at 08:33

    If Deepak had been posting today we would have a picture of a Badminton for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard21 May 2013 at 08:47

    Thanks Bhavan for bringing back my college days' memories with the blithe spirit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaturvasi21 May 2013 at 09:00

      Kishore in March this year recalled this very line while posting solution to a Gridman crossword that recalled another line from the same poem.

      I thought I had recalled the blithe line in one of my own crosswords but my dB doesn't bring it up. Perhaps it is in one of the puzzles in my stock that are yet to be published.

      BTAIM, the task now is to write a clue for BLITHE without using the FITB device.

      I may not comment on all entries but I will select the most favourite.

      Delete
    2. Bhavan21 May 2013 at 09:24

      May be you were thinking of another FITB clue which was a quote from Shelley ? 27 Across in this puzzle

      Delete
    3. Richard21 May 2013 at 09:26

      Light-hearted, he bit fifty at large (6)

      The lib in confusion, but carefree (6)

      Delete
    4. Shrikanth21 May 2013 at 09:27

      Cheerful bachelor inflamed her endlessly (6)

      Delete
    5. Rengaswamy21 May 2013 at 09:57

      Cheerful Bishop set afire the gas (6)

      Delete
    6. Rengaswamy21 May 2013 at 10:11

      Boron, Lithium, Tritium and Helium are gay (6)

      Delete
    7. Rengaswamy21 May 2013 at 10:57

      Arab lit head light at the heart (6)

      Delete
    8. Shrikanth21 May 2013 at 12:22

      Careless Bell hit erratically: Fifty out! (6)

      In chaos, establish ass ran away without a thought (6)

      Delete
    9. Sreelakshmi21 May 2013 at 20:40

      Belch it out- out goes a key; now becomes relaxed!(6)

      Delete
  3. Chaturvasi21 May 2013 at 09:11

    Re 'sackcloth'.

    There was a time when our houses had 'gonippai' aplenty.

    Rice, grains, sugar and other commodities were delivered in these bags.

    They had markings stamped on them in green.

    To open the string binding the open end had to be cut and pulled out. The coiled string, straightened out and wound over a wooden scale, might come in handy when some fastening had to be made later.

    When the empty bags piled up they would be sold to the man who came shouting "saakkupai, saakkupai".

    One also recalls workers unloading from lorries these bags filled with goods. Before hauling them up on their shoulders, the men would pierce the bag with a sharp tool - some grains or sugar spilling out.

    All that is almost gone. Now it's HDPE bags. Oh, how the plastic threads spew out and make us trip!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chaturvasi21 May 2013 at 09:16

    I may have regretted occasionally but I have not worn sackcloth and ashes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous21 May 2013 at 10:43

    Happy British ambassador has left that thing (6)

    ReplyDelete
  6. raju umamaheswar21 May 2013 at 13:36

    My clue for :

    The ethos of a playwright who was not a brave heart.

    Have been busy packing. Off to the land of Uncle Sam tomorrow. Hope to catch up on the blog from The Big Apple by the end of the week . Hopefully only leisure times.

    Meantime. all ye-fellow bloggers have fun-crossword-filling days ahead and God bless ye-all

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rengaswamy21 May 2013 at 14:03

      Bon Voyage. Life was much simpler when apple and blackberry were just fruits.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21 May 2013 at 14:17

      @Raju: all the best and may your bags reach with you

      @Rengaswamy: and gay meant being blithe

      Delete
  7. PKPSwami21 May 2013 at 14:14

    I had a stroll in the park. No thorn. No bushes.met smooth surfaces.chiselled features.clues automatically escalate to the desired destination.very nice puzzle indeed after a success hungry week.. thanks to sankalak.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous21 May 2013 at 16:57

    25 These egrets going up escort other birds (5) GEESE (T<=)

    After the recent gooses/geese discussion, we now see geese flying backward in the clue. This reminds me of a cinematic anecdote:

    As you know, in places on the west coast, one can see the illusion of the sun setting into the sea (as against the east coast where one can see the sun apparently rising from the sea). An enterprising cinematographer wanted to show the sun rising from the sea at LA. He filmed the sunset and played it backwards. It was glorious: There was a glow on the horizon, and then a sliver of the golden sun sneaked up above the waters. The disk grew larger, but less colourful as the sun rise continued and the geese in the frame flapped their wings beautifully as they flew backwards.

    Reminds me of an old Tamil song (my words may not be very correct) which talked of the sunrise in the west. It ran something like: Idu merku tondra udayam...

    Any one remember it ? I think I saw it in a movie around 1980, around the time I saw Sakalakala vallavan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21 May 2013 at 17:00

      I think the movie was Oru Thalai Raagam.

      Here are actual lyrics:
      http://www.mohankumars.com/lyrics/index.php?m=s&lid=1774&PHPSESSID=783f15bf8777d2dcb5054a07d1fc9968

      Delete
    2. Shrikanth21 May 2013 at 19:17

      Yes it is Oru Thalai Raagam. T.Rajendar's first offering (maybe the only good one). The song is oxymoronic in nature (is that a right term?). Lyrics talking about things that can't happen or adversarial in nature.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous21 May 2013 at 18:15

    Both the geese anecdotes are probably from The Readers' Digest, though I am not absolutely sure

    ReplyDelete
  10. Padmanabhan22 May 2013 at 02:00

    Clue for 'Blithe'-

    Second grade,flexible and happy

    ReplyDelete

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